Motherhood is framed as a sacred obligation rather than a natural need

Evidence

No “maternal instinct,” innate and mysterious, lies therein either. The little girl observes that child care falls to the mother, that is what she is taught; stories told, books read, all her little experience confirms it; she is encouraged to feel delight for these future riches, she is given dolls so she will already feel the tangible aspect of those riches. Her “vocation” is determined imperiously. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 693 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Such an obligation is not at all natural: nature could never dictate a moral choice; this implies an engagement. To have a child is to take on a commitment; if the mother shrinks from it, she commits an offense against human existence, against a freedom; but no one can impose it on her. The relation of parents to children, like that of spouses, must be freely chosen. And it is not even true that the child is a privileged accomplishment for a woman; it is often said that a woman is coquettish, or amorous, or lesbian, or ambitious as a result of “being childless”; her sexual life, her goals, and the values she pursues are deemed to be substitutes for the child. In fact, from the beginning there is indetermination: one can just as well say that lacking love, an occupation, or the power to satisfy her homosexual tendencies, a woman wants to have a child. A social and artificial morality hides behind this pseudo-naturalism. That the child is the ultimate end for woman is an affirmation worthy of an advertising slogan. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1533 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

There is no such thing as an “unnatural mother,” since maternal love has nothing natural about it: but precisely because of that, there are bad mothers. … There is extravagant bad faith in the conflation of contempt for women and respect shown for mothers. It is a criminal paradox to deny women all public activity, to close masculine careers to them, to proclaim them incapable in all domains, and to nonetheless entrust to them the most delicate and most serious of all undertakings: the formation of a human being. There are many women who, out of custom and tradition, are still refused education, culture, responsibilities, and activities that are the privileges of men, and in whose arms, nevertheless, babies are placed without scruple, as in earlier life they were consoled for their inferiority to boys with dolls; they are deprived of living their lives; as compensation, they are allowed to play with flesh-and-blood toys. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1534 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sedentary agriculture gives motherhood sacred status because property demands heirs — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 161; Society coopts the mother’s influence by sanctifying her as guardian of morality — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 369; Motherhood converts the erotic breast into a sacred one — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1449 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• The maternal obligation is a social construct, not a natural dictate #corroborates (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1533
• Maternal vocation is socially imposed, not instinctually innate #corroborates (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 693
• Motherhood is not natural, which is exactly why it can be done badly #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1534